'Graciously explicit' job post reveals Trump's DHS expanding shadowy apparatus: report
President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security is expanding a shadowy part of its operations, according to a new report.
Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported on Tuesday on a "graciously explicit" job posting from a long-time defense contracting company called Xcelerate Solutions, which is hiring a "Top Secret-cleared analyst to join the 'watchlisting team'" that supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement's "watchlist apparatus." The report was published at a time when the Trump administration's immigration forces are facing increased scrutiny over their actions in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal agents.
The job posting said the analyst will identify "criminal networks," nominate "individuals eligible for the watchlist," and "deconflict" previously nominated individuals, Klippenstein reported.
He also noted that DHS officials, including departing spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin and acting ICE director Todd Lyons, have denied the existence of ICE's watchlist apparatus. Klippenstein argued that those denials "rely on technicalities" because the term "watchlist" has a certain definition in the national security world.
"In the national security world, a 'watchlist' is a specific legal term of art to describe the Terrorist Screening Dataset, which itself used to be called the Terrorist Screening Database because it once referred to one single watchlist (now there are many)," Klippenstein wrote.
"By claiming they don’t have a 'watchlist,' homeland security isn’t saying they aren’t tracking people; they are saying they aren’t using that specific administrative bucket," he added. "At least, that was before the job announcement revealed that indeed ICE was referring to a watchlist of its own."